Never Safe
by gleekymcgrey
Summary: A battle of good versus evil. Of love, and revenge. In the name of family and enemy, joy and sacrifice. Kate and Castle are faced with the greatest bump in the road upon the loss of their daughter, and the road to redemption, isn't as easy as they first thought. Will their love conquer all? *Rated M for violence. Read, Rate, Review!*
1. Prologue

_Isn't she lovely?_

_Isn't she wonderful?_

_Isn't she precious, less than one minute old?_

_Stevie Wonder_

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

He could stay this way forever; his head propped up on his daughter's crib, her tiny hand wrapped around his finger, getting more and more beautiful with every passing second. He never thought he could feel a love so great; he could shun the whole world for it. It was the kind of love he only felt for his children, and he'd never grow tired of loving them.

His week old little girl seemed to be growing right before his eyes. He could already see her growing just as wonderful as her big sister Alexis, and as beautiful as her mother, and her big brother Alex will be there for her, always.

_Janna Bianca Castle_ would be the luckiest kid there ever was.

"You'll have all the love in the world, Bianca,"

"Castle, it's late,"—Kate said softly, sneakily walking towards him, then wrapping her arms around his chest. "…she's not going anywhere,"

"She's beautiful," he craned his neck, and planted a kiss on his wife's cheek. "Just like you. I love you," he said against her skin, both his hands now intertwined with hers.

"I love you," she whispered back, tightening her embrace, and paying him back with a soft smack on his forehead. "But seriously, it's two in the morning."

"Maybe we can take the crib to our room and…"

"You can't just get enough of her, hmm?" Kate teased, pulling his chair away from the pink, lace-laden crib. "We'll transfer the crib in the morning, okay?"

Convinced, he stood up, and turned to leave the room, but not without kissing his baby girl goodnight. "Daddy will be back in the morning, sweet pea,"


	2. Chapter One

**{CHAPTER ONE}**

No matter how hard it took or how impossible it would get—he will find her.

No advice can ever tell him to stop looking.

To move on,

To get on with his life,

To stop ruining his family;

It had been four years since their two-year old Bianca had been taken.

It was a sunny day at the crowded park. He had been punishing himself long enough he actually believed it was his fault she was gone. That if only, he'd been a better father. If only, he didn't answer the phone. He remembered every single moment of that June afternoon. He could vividly remember the smile on Alex ad Bianca's faces, playing on the sandbox with their latest toy shovel.

But the moments that came after were like a nightmare. No. Who was he kidding? It wasn't a nightmare. A nightmare had to be a product of his subconscious—so it was more than that. Worse than that. The next thing he heard was Alex crying his heart out, a bleeding cut on his forehead, and his little sister gone.

_"Alex, buddy, what happened?" he ran to him, held his arms, both nauseated and furious by the trickle of blood on his son's skin. "Buddy, what happened? Where's your little sister?"_

_"Daddy..." he cried some more, and the tears never seemed to stop._

_"Alex, use your words," his heart was racing, beating out of his chest, and all that thriller story book cliché. _

_"He...pushed me…" he uttered the words in pained sobs, "…they took Bianca…"_

_…and everything else came crumbling down. It felt as if the world shut down on him, and suddenly he felt lightheaded. His knee gave up on him, and everything Alex said after were just faint words in the back of his mind._

_"Daddy!" Alex's voice tore through him. His hand was pressed hard on his forehead, trying to stop the blood from pooling down his neck._

"Castle, are you listening?"—he caught the last of her words. It started with 'I can't make it to Alex today' and somewhere between 'I'm caught up with paper work' and ended up with 'are you listening', and yet another sympathetic look from his wife. The moment he had recollected himself, she was already only inches away from his face, fresh batch of tears pooling in her green eyes.

"Castle," she positioned herself on his leg, and held his scruffy face in between her palms. "We're not giving up. I am _not_ giving up. But please," she pleaded with her heart. "….please, don't give up on _us_. I miss our baby girl. I miss _you_," the tears fell freely now, and her arms are wrapped around his neck.

"I'm sorry, Kate. I'm sorry, ssssh," he ran circles on her back.

"We'll find her, right?"

"We will," he said reassuringly, because for once, he needed himself to be strong. He didn't realize that all those years Kate needed him to be there. Alex needed him to be his father, too. "We'll find her,"

It's been four years. The chances of finding her little girl were very slim. But there was a chance, no matter how slim it seemed.

_"Detective, there's been a kidnapping,"—she eavesdropped on another detective's conversation. She turned, her interest piqued. Then her phone rang; the first she got for the day. It had been an extremely slow day for her. She had finished all of her paper work and couldn't wait to get home to Castle and to the kids._

_She ignored the detective's news and looked at her phone; a smile crawling across her mouth as she read the caller ID; Rick._

_"Castle, are you home yet?"_

_Sirens. Loud sirens. He was in an ambulance. Or in a place full of police cars. Either way, she knew something had t be wrong._

_"Castle, what's happening?"_

_Detective, there's been a kidnapping—the words endlessly rang in her mind. _

**_"Kate,"_**_ his voice cracked. He was broken. __**"…Kate, they took her. Someone took her,"**_

_"Castle, what are you talking about?!" she raised her voice, causing the others to turn their heads to her direction. Esposito rushed to her side, and Ryan, who had just gone off from the elevator, bore the news he wasn't quite sure how to tell to his friend._

**_"Bianca's gone. We're on our way to the hospital. Alex is hurt,"_**

_"What-"she was dumbfounded. She didn't realize she was crying when Esposito took her in his arms. Fury overcame her, and she pushed Javi away, "…Rick, what do you mean gone?" _

_Kate found herself looking around the room. She didn't like what she gets—sympathetic looks from her colleagues. _

_"__**Bianca's missing…"**_

She remembered that unfortunate day all too clearly. Kate remembered rushing to the hospital, blaming Castle for what he couldn't have prevented, not talking to him for months, empathetically taking care of Alex—taking him to school, kissing him goodbye, picking him up, tucking him to bed, reading him his sister's favorite bedtime story, then crying herself until she couldn't sleep, then burying herself in paper work, hoping for a lead that never seemed to surface.

"Muffin, Kate?"

She looked up, and saw Esposito, holding out a muffin with his hand.

"Blueberry?" she perked up, her mouth watering.

"Of course,"

"Thanks, Javi,"—she took the muffin and gave herself a bite.

He stood still in front of her. Suddenly, she felt like being that vulnerable mother years ago. Esposito had been there; her friends had always been. She looked up, and her eyes wandered to his recently filled out note pad.

"What is it?" she asked, a nervous half-smile sprawled on her face.

"Kate, we found a body,"

She tensed up. Just like each time they caught a case. In the back of her mind, she was too afraid they were going to find their little girl too late. As if that couldn't have been to nerve-wrecking, Javi spoke again…

"…Five year-old girl, Manhattan,"

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

**Hi! I'm back with a new suspense fanfic (If you can call it that). I do hope you will like this one because I put a lot of thought (and pride) into it. Thank you so much for your support with my previous stories. **

**I just love your reviews :) Send more!**

**Rate and review :)**

**Chapter Two is up for your convenience.**


	3. Chapter Two

{CHAPTER TWO}

It was that time of the year again. Childless parents would barge into their rust-laden double door, and look at prospective foster children, as if looking for the perfect dress to buy.

At least, it felt that way.

The girls stood in a straight line, wearing their best, and it usually meant wearing the ones that hadn't been eaten by the sneaky moths in their closets. The rule was simple. They get chosen, and they earn themselves a family. And if not, then they stay in the _Thetis Home for Girls_, where it could easily be hell on earth. With over eighty girls and just a few couples looking for a kid, the chances of being picked very, very, slim. The tiny ones almost always get picked first, which explained why Alanis Smith, a fifteen year-old, didn't hope much for a new family.

"Can you fix my bow for me, Maddie?"

Maddie turned, and saw the newest kid in the house, Jane Pfizer, a cute as a button three year old. If she's lucky, she could be chosen right away. Maddie smiled, and knelt down to fix the bow on Jane's polka dot yellow and blue dress.

"You look very pretty, Jane,"

"Really?"—the little girl looked up with hopeful eyes. It was such a shame she got into this life. Poor girl wouldn't remember what happened to her before this. Maddie knew the cycle all too well. She'd been there for six years now; she was two years old when some teenagers found her off of the streets, malnourished, and barely had the life to sustain for another day. The only thing she was certain that was hers, was the gold necklace around her shoulder that came with her. It had a pendant, a capital letter B in an intricate script. It didn't make any sense to her, but she kept it anyway.

The white hallway and the long flight of stairs became the only memory of her young life. At bedtime, the others would talk about how their families were like, and when they asked her, she didn't have anything to say. It was almost like she was born there, and the fact of never leaving the home didn't scare her as much as the others.

She smiled, and stroked the loose locks of brown hair from Jane's face. "Of course you do,"

"Maddie Grey, Eula Thornton, Sally Craig," Miss Thetis Moore—a supposed great granddaughter of Thetis Jameson, the founder of the house—stormed to the quarters, holding what seemed to be their records. The other girls had been to families before, and had their records filled. But Maddie, already eight years old, had never been anywhere but the crowded quarters. She'd seen people come and go, and started doubting herself.

Maybe there was something wrong with her that even her parents didn't want her.

"Out now, girls." Miss Thetis ordered. They were all afraid of her. She was a middle-aged woman, with a long hair she almost always kept in a bun, and she always wore her Governess uniform, a long, gray dress made of thick fabric. Her heels would click on the old, wooden floor, sending the girls on a rush to bury themselves under the sheets.

The girls did what they were told, and walked briskly to the holding room. They called it that because most of the time they spent there were for listening to instructions and reporting their day's work.

"I need you to guide the little ones to the hall. For others it would be their first, and I trust you to tell them what to do,"

"Yes, Miss Thetis," they said in a low chorus.

"Here is the list. Make sure you're in an alphabetical order,"

"Yes, Miss Thetis," they went again.

"Off you go,"

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

"Where is it? I'm with the police. Let me..." Castle yelled at everyone, because it was the only way he could get through the police line. He couldn't see his people anywhere, but he could certainly smell the familiar stink of a rotting corpse.

"Let him in," a tall, and muscular man, came to his aid. Castle didn't know him, and he was certain he didn't see him in the precinct before. Judging by his slick suit and leather shoes, he knew he was an FBI agent. "Mr. Castle, I'm Special Agent Giuseppe Tuck. We've taken jurisdiction over the case,"

"Isn't this a homicide?"

"A homicide related to a kidnapping syndicate,"

Before he could react any further, someone had jumped in on him. Lavender, and citrus—Kate. He turned to face her, only to find that she was just as broken as him. "…is it?"

"Lanie's doing some tests. Castle," Fear was evident in her voice. But she remained strong. She held back the tears, and tried to stay on the light of things.

"I know. I'm scared, too."

"Guys, I need to know Bianca's blood type,"—Lanie's voice made it through the crowd's noise. Castle and Beckett rushed to where she was, trying not to hurl at the sight of the body. Despite the blood, they could tell the girl had brown hair, fair skin, and small frame. They held each other's hands and waited for Lanie to finish her medical voodoo.

"She's type O," Castle muttered under his breath.

Lanie sighed, as if a thorn had been pulled out of her head. "AB+,"

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

The line started with Mabel something—they didn't know the girl's last name—the youngest, only two years old, and ended with Alanis Smith, fifteen years old. They stood in a straight line, smiling like mannequins at the clothes store. They didn't know why, exactly, but June had always been a peak season for adoption. Maddie was right about Jane Pfizer. In less than thirty minutes, a family had taken responsibility over her.

The others swooned over the woman's five-inch heels and perfect blonde hair and the man's expensive-looking suit. Jane would be very, very lucky.

Suddenly, there was a commotion coming from the lobby. Miss Thetis, usually very calm and well-presented, was on an evident rush. They heard cars—lots of them—arrive on their lawn. The other Headmasters gathered to the door, and soon a herd of men in black suits barged in.

They all admired him.

The girls watched in awe as the men positioned themselves in an orderly fashion, standing block by block, as if making way for the big, tall man behind them.

"Welcome, Senator Bracken," they heard Miss Thetis say.

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

**Hi there! I hope you liked that one J**

** Cliffhanger, I know. But I swear to God, I will put my all into this story. I am still very overwhelmed by your support in The Lonely Track; your reviews inspired me to write again. **

**This will be very angsty, and for the folks out there who like angst, be with me!**

**Let me know what you think :) Constructive criticisms are always welcome.**


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